Molineux, the house that Jack built, is a stadium in mourning, in tribute to
one of the game's greatest owner-benefactors, who never asked for anything
in return

As Molineux stood in salute of the late, great Sir Jack Hayward on Tuesday night, the only sound during the minute’s silence was of two flags flapping in the wind, one emblazoned with the Wolves crest and the other being the Union flag. The only sound when the referee signalled the start of the FA Cup third-round replay against Fulham was Wolves supporters singing “There’s only one Jack Hayward”.

Wolves’ president passed away in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday, aged 91, plunging Molineux into mourning. Fans waved flags with his name on – always “Sir Jack”. They chanted his name regularly, calling themselves “Jack Hayward’s barmy army” as the snow fell, as the replay went into extra time, finishing 3-3 and setting up a shoot-out won by Fulham when Hugo Rodallega found the back of the net. Sir Jack would have loved the drama, if not the result.

However frustrating for Wolves, Tuesday night was about so much more than a game. “He was a true gentleman, and had a life that should be celebrated,” said Wolves head coach Kenny Jackett. “He started the development of this fantastic ground, and the fantastic training facilities and he will be missed by many people.’’

Jackett’s players wore black armbands. As did Kit Symons’. The speakers swelled with Land of Hope and Glory as Molineux remembered a patriot often known as “Union Jack”. Wolves issued a statement “to extend its deepest and most sincere condolences to Sir Jack’s wife, Lady Hayward, his companion of many years, Patti Bloom, and all his family and friends at home and across the world.”

Molineux will stage more extensive tributes to their beloved former benefactor on Saturday when more than 26,000 will flock to this famous old ground, an arena so splendidly modernised, for the Championship match with Blackpool. Wolves had not been anticipating a particularly big turn-out for Tuesday night’s replay but the sad news from Fort Lauderdale in the afternoon ensured many changed their evening’s plans, and hurried through the weeping rain, finding familiar shelter in the Stan Cullis Stand, Billy Wright Stand and the South Bank.

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They were drawn by a reverence for Sir Jack, by a desire to pay their respects to the local boy who never lost his love for Wolves, who rescued them when they were on the verge of penury and extinction, who poured a fortune touching £100 million into the club, and who never asked for anything in return. Sir Jack was more than a chairman of the club. He was a custodian. He cared.

English football has been indebted to some noble owners down the years – the names of Jack Walker and John Cobbold spring immediately to mind – and Hayward was one of the very finest. Anyone privileged to have met Sir Jack was instantly captivated by his dignity, humour, patriotism and his total devotion to Wolves.

Having become affluent through developing interests in the Bahamas, Hayward bought Wolves for £2 million in 1990. For 12 years, his hopes of promotion were dashed. “Make way for an old man who has just seen his dream die for another year,’’ Hayward would say as he made his way from Molineux after another failed campaign.

But then came May 26, 2003. Many of the Wolves fans pouring into the Millennium Stadium for the play-off final wore T-shirts exhorting the players to “Do it for Sir Jack”. They did, beating Sheffield United 3-0.

Jez Moxey, the current chief executive brought in by Sir Jack in 2000, recalled emotional events in Cardiff. “There was that wonderful moment about the 82nd minute when the cameras panned to him and his face is on the screen,’’ said Moxey. “He notices it and does this double thumbs-up that just said to everyone, ‘We’ve done it together, this is our moment in the sun, let’s enjoy it’.

“He so desperately wanted Wolves to be successful and never felt he had done enough for the club. He was a supporter since the age of five, growing up a stone’s throw away in Whitmore Reans. He would climb under the turnstiles to watch his heroes. That love for the team never left him. When he became fortunate enough to put something back it was second nature to him.

“The club could have gone out of business at the time he stepped in and saved the club. It certainly would not have been nurtured and loved the way it has been to create what we have now. He would tune in to every single game wherever he was in the world. He was always doing a world cruise every year for four or five months. Day or night he would wake up and listen to the matches or try to watch them without fail.”

Sir Jack was last at Molineux on May 6, typically crossing the Atlantic to show his support for Jody Craddock at the defender’s testimonial. As ever, Sir Jack was impeccably attired, wearing his club suit and tie, his grey hair neatly brushed. “When I arrived, Derek Harrington, the vice-chairman, said: ‘Jez, on match day make sure you wear a tie. Sir Jack insists on it. You’ve got to look the part. When you’re off duty, you can call him Jack but on match days you call him Sir Jack. It’s about respect. He was a principled man. Sir Jack liked things to be done properly. He was a man of his word.”

As well as Wolves, the country has lost a distinguished businessman, philanthropist and war hero. “He was in the war as a glider pilot,’’ added Moxey. “He wasn’t called ‘Union Jack’ for nothing. He was a stiff-upper-lip British gentleman.”

Matches permitting, Sir Jack would invariably stop for afternoon tea at 4pm, entertaining friends. “He was the most generous-hearted, kind man you could ever want to meet but he also had a ruthless streak that was as tough as anyone I could ever meet,’’ said Moxey. Certain family members discovered this when Hayward sold Wolves, then back in the Championship, to Steve Morgan for £10 in 2007 with the agreement that the incoming owner invested £30 million.

“He had a massive fallout with a lot of his family, over what he did for Wolves, and what he did with Steve Morgan,’’ recalled Moxey. “They [family members] were saying: ‘Are you losing your senses? Are you serious? What you should do is stick with it, get to the Premier League and sell it for £100 million, so all the money you spent we can get back.’ ’’ Hayward stayed true to his word, selling to Morgan. “He wanted the future to be bright for Wolves.’’

His boyhood club were not the only recipients of his largesse. He saved Lundy Island for the National Trust. He backed the England women’s cricket team. On hearing that the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital in Port Stanley had burned down, he contacted friends in the Falklands, wiring across £1 million to help rebuilding.

At Sir Jack’s 70th birthday party, the legendary cricket commentator Brian Johnston proposed the toast, raising a glass to “one of the biggest givers, not just of money, but of friendship”. Twenty-one years on, Johnston’s words endure as a worthy tribute.

For the congregation gathering at Molineux on Saturday, some will tour the magnificent new Wolves Museum in the Stan Cullis Stand. They should seek out the short message that Sir Jack left in the visitors’ book: “Glad to have helped.”